Curious Leadership with Dominic Monkhouse

This episode was originally broadcast by Startup Grind Bournemouth (UK) as an interactive and intimate fireside chat with experienced technology business leader Dominic Monkhouse of Foundry Media. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because this is a chat with our very own illustrious leader, Dom. In this interview Andrew Walker, a founder at Click Tools now turned angel investor and mentor in the startup community in Bournemouth, talks to Dom about how he gained his business experience and the work he did with two UK technology businesses (Rackspace and Peer 1) in order to scale them to over £25 million within 5 years. Dom talks the audience through his ten point plan for scaling any business, giving away lots of nuggets and actionable takeaways, sharing his career journey along the way. On today’s podcast: Dom’s framework of 10 things that will help scale up a startup Links: https://www.startupgrind.com/bournemouth

Today we are turning the spotlight on… Dom himself. A couple of months ago Dom interviewed Carla and Imogen from FizzPopBANG - The Culture Consultancy on The Melting Pot and in turn, they kindly invited Dom to be a guest on their PopCAST. This episode is that episode. Now the interviewer has become the interviewee and it’s about time - Dom rarely talks about his background on the podcasts, focusing instead on the achievements and the expertise of the guests who feature on The Melting Pot podcast. So it’s a refreshing change to get a behind the scenes look at how Dom came to be fronting The Melting Pot podcast, and what his career journey to date has been like. In essence, Dom is a certified Scaling Up Coach with effective tools and techniques to help propel companies forward. He took Rackspace to £30 million in five years, and then at Peer 1, he took the business from nothing to £30 million in five years, and globally £19 million to £200 million. He works with tech businesses helping them scale up. These are businesses that typically have somewhere between £10 and £100 million. They have an ambitious CEO who wants to scale, but has sailed into choppy waters. “I guess nobody rings me if everything's going completely smoothly, so for one reason or another, the wheels are starting to wobble or something's not quite right. And they get in touch and if there's some chemistry then I get to help.” Dom’s secret to scaling up? It’s always about the people and always about the culture. We hope you find this podcast insightful, and that you enjoy listening to it as much as Dom did making it. On today’s podcast: The reason Dom became a business coach The biggest influence on his career Dom’s coaching programme Culture and leadership How to work without managers Rhythms not processes The importance of accountability for employees Who shapes culture? Links: Verne Harnish – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Jim Collins – Good to Great Verne Harnish - Scaling up

Do you need to notch your marketing up another level? Do you run a tech start up but your story is failing to get any traction with the press? Then you need to hire in Transatlantic, the marketing agency run by CEO Gideon Joseph. “We are a communications consultancy working with fast growth, entrepreneurial businesses that want to change the world.” Gideon is the guy who can get your marketing really singing. He cut his teeth working for Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight, followed by a stint at ITV and Channel 4 working on Big Brother, before realising that Skype had an amazing opportunity to revolutionise broadcasting. “Satellite was expensive, using VoIP was cheap, in fact, free. While the quality of the satellite link or the VoIP connection was dodgy, it was worth the trade off… the whole idea was that this was innovative marketing by an aggressive fast growth business.” Gideon has since developed a unique approach to marketing using, in Gideon’s own words, ‘story, fame and rolodex’. “Our core offer revolves around 3 things - forging a brand narrative and messaging for young brands; making our clients "famous" with the right audiences, at the right time; and finally, providing access to our phenomenal rolodex.” This is a great discussion that we enjoyed immensely and we’re sure you will too. On today’s podcast: How Gideon used the news media to make Skype famous The work Gideon’s done for former clients and does for current ones What you as a business leader need to do in terms of marketing The importance of narrative, fame and a rolodex Measuring the value of PR How to use LinkedIn effectively

Todd Palmer is the president and CEO of Extraordinary Advisors, a business that works with entrepreneurs to help them work on themselves as leaders, in order to make changes within their own business. “It's like a friend of mine tells me, I help leaders get their act together so they can get stuff done in their business.” Todd carved out his career placing highly skilled individuals in Detroit during a recession. But it wasn’t always plain sailing to get included in the Inc 5000 five times out of six. Todd suffered badly with imposter syndrome, “I thought I should have all the answers for all the people and all their issues all the time, and I shit all over myself thinking I should have all these things, when in reality nobody has all the answers to everything that comes up.” He began working with a business coach and quickly realised he’d hired a toxic group of employees and had to fire them, restarting his company from scratch. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength and now coaches other entrepreneurs, helping them overcome their own insecurities and feelings of imposter syndrome, in order to fix themselves and ultimately their business. “You know, there's a philosophy within the EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) community. An entrepreneur alone as an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur at risk, and I chose to isolate rather than reach out for help until I really hit a bottom in my business.” And because Todd’s in the recruitment game he and Dom talk about how to hire and retain great talent, as well as the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when hiring talent. This is a great conversation, we hope you enjoy listening to Todd as much as we did. On today’s podcast: Overcoming imposter syndrome Hitting rock bottom and turning his ship around Why Extraordinary Advisors is his legacy What help he gives CEOs Why sourcing talent is the biggest challenge for any business The number one reason people quit their job People and processes make the profits How to fire with compassion Links: Book - The Job Search Process Entrepreneurs’ Organization

What’s the difference between skippering a yacht around the world and leading a multinational organisation? Well, according to Brendan Hall, inspirational speaker, leadership author and at only 27, the winning skipper of the world’s most demanding sailing event – The Clipper Round the World Race, not a huge amount. You see Brendan has taken his experiences skippering the winning yacht and applied them to the world of business. Because when you’re in the middle of the ocean and your crew has a mutiny early on, there’s not a whole lot you can do. You can either give up and lose the race, or take their feedback on board, abruptly change your leadership style and make damn sure everyone has the time of their lives in the process - and win. And that’s just what Brendan did. “Good leadership in any industry kind of looks the same. So, the experience I had, and the lessons that I can give my clients I find very applicable and certainly relevant to their own experience leading a startup or more established business or some strata of management in a in a global organisation.” On today’s podcast: How Brendan got to the start line of the clipper yacht race Overcoming imposter syndrome Creating a culture of teamwork and inspiring an ethos to win Why his team had a mutiny and how he dealt with it Why a leader needs to empower their team, not own it The importance of creating processes early on to ensure smooth operations Links: (Book) Team Spirit - Brendan Hall https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/

If you want (or need) to be a great public speaker, if you want to enthral your audience and be remembered, then don’t miss this episode of The Melting Pot. Because Graham Davies, the self-titled reformed barrister turned accidental orator, is not just a captivating public speaker. Graham is also a renowned public speaking coach whose list of blue-chip corporate and individual high-profile clients reads like an international Who’s Who and includes 8 FTSE 100 CEOs and 20 Cabinet Ministers across successive governments. Graham started life as a barrister, practising law for 12 years, but found a new calling in the late 80s and early 90s when he discovered that there was a budding marketplace for professional after dinner speakers and there was good money to be made doing it. Leveraging his identity as a barrister by day and public entertainer by night, he eventually found himself giving 100 after-dinner speeches a year, whilst maintaining his day job working as a barrister 9 days out of 10, and something had to give. It wasn’t a hard choice to make - he not only enjoyed public speaking more than law, but it paid better too. Ever the consummate professional, Graham began turning up to his speaking engagements earlier and earlier, listening to the speakers who preceded him, and he realised that public speaking was not, as is commonly thought, an innate skill that we all have. And so began his second and current career as The Presentation Coach. Listen to this fantastic high energy, high octane discussion with Graham. We’re sure you'll enjoy it. On today’s podcast: How he became The Presentation Coach What he looks for in clients who need his help His process for teaching the art of public speaking Why you want to make people feel, rather than listen The power of persuasive speech How TED talks have turned public speaking into rock and roll The benefit of ruthless preparation Developing your micro message Links: Graham’s book - The Presentation Coach

What’s your biggest claim to fame? Is it that you coined one of the most prolific phrases in modern web lexicon? Because that’s what it is for this week’s guests on The Melting Pot. Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson, co-founders of Conversion Rate Experts are credited with coining the phrase ‘Conversion Rate Optimisation’ (CRO) back in 2007, to encapsulate the methodology their agency used with websites. Today, they’re still in the business of making websites convert, but they’ve also written a book ‘Making Websites Win’ and they run one of the leading agencies for CRO, counting among their clients behemoths such as Apple, Google and Facebook. “I think markets mature to a point where successful web businesses understand that in order to be a successful web business, you have to put your customers and your visitors at the heart of what you're doing. That's where conversion rate optimization comes in.” The clients that Karl and Ben typically work with are businesses generating more than £1m in revenue online annually, but that doesn’t mean that their methodology or their advice can’t help small businesses. Far from it. Because all websites can benefit from improvements in CRO. Which is why Dom talks to them about tips and tricks they’ve learned along the way, the importance of UX, understanding customers’ needs as well as why they not only wrote their book but then turned it into a free 10 episode podcast. These guys really are two fantastic guests and their interview is incredibly insightful. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful and just as enjoyable as we did. P.s. the guys have kindly offered a free digital copy of their book, Making Websites Win, available to all The Melting Pot listeners. To claim your copy, simply click on the URL in the links section. On today’s podcast: Why you need to be scientific about your website to optimise it What AB testing is The CRE approach with all their clients’ websites The most common problems that websites have Why you should compare your best salesperson to your homepage The importance of understanding your customers’ needs Their love of content marketing You need to do CRO to survive, not just thrive Links: https://conversion-rate-experts.com/audiobook/

If you’re wondering why your sales team isn’t converting, maybe it isn’t time to double the size of the team; maybe it’s time to rethink your whole sales process. In fact, while you’re at it, why don’t you scale back the sales’ team responsibilities, divide up their tasks, division of labour, so to speak, and have your sales executives responsible for just, sales… Controversial? Maybe, but this approach to sales is what today’s guest, Justin Roff-Marsh advocates not just in his book, The Machine, but with his management consultancy company, Ballistix. “Typically we will either build a sales function entirely from scratch, or we will work with [a company] on the rebuild of their sales function. I say sales function loosely because actually most of the work that we do is building the functions or rebuilding the functions that are adjacent to sales, so as to make sales more productive.” Having dedicated the last 15 years of his 30 year career to developing a scientific approach to the design and management of sales processes, Justin is incredibly well placed to discuss why companies need to rethink their sales function if they hope to scale. Because Justin is on a mission to shatter the myths around what makes sales people great. On today’s podcast: Why sales should learn from effective operations and production environments What Ballistix does Why companies’ approach to sales is wrong Why the sales environment needs to feature division of labour The misplaced focus on marketing Why we shouldn’t pay salespeople commission Why sales isn’t all about personal relationships Links: The Machine - Justin Roff-Marsh

If you’re looking for a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that will help the leadership team of your entrepreneurial company make better decisions, create a clearer, simpler vision, get everybody on the same page and execute day in and day out with real discipline and accountability, then you want to listen to Mike Paton, award-winning speaker, best-selling author, Certified EOS Implementer™, and the Visionary for EOS Worldwide, on this week’s episode of The Melting Pot. Paton (as everyone knows him as) discovered the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS) a dozen years ago while trying to take a $7 million company to the next level. Feeling stuck and more than a little frustrated, his search for answers led him to Gino Wickman and EOS. Paton instantly recognised the power of this simple, holistic “way of operating” a small business. Since then, Paton has conducted more than 1,200 full-day sessions with the leadership teams of more than 110 companies and helped thousands more entrepreneurs by sharing EOS in dynamic talks and workshops the world over. During this journey, Paton wrote Get A Grip: An Entrepreneurial Fable with Gino Wickman and then succeeded Gino in the role of Visionary for EOS Worldwide. Today Paton and Dom chat about why you might want a system at all, why you might want a coach and they talk about some of the tools in EOS. They also talk about rocks and the level 10 meeting. So to hear this and so much more, tune into this week’s episode, it’s a great conversation that we are sure you’re going to hugely enjoy. On today’s podcast: What visionary means in the EOS world How Mike found himself working with entrepreneurs everyday Why writing the book was the hardest thing Mike has ever done What putting EOS into place looks like for some businesses The Level 10 Meeting Why the level of maturity and experience of the leadership team needs to grow with the complexity of the business

Have you ever wanted to just put a pin in your life, upsticks and travel the world with your family before it’s too late? Well, that’s just what Nigel Bennett did. Nigel is an entrepreneur. Just not like any other entrepreneur we’ve had on the show. Where most people work hard, scaling up their business in order to sell it, Nigel, after taking mind altering drugs deep in the Amazon rainforest had an epiphany, and decided not to sell. That’s pretty much how this episode goes. It is just story after story of Nigel’s fascinating life. It doesn’t seem like he’s had any dull moments, and he hasn’t stopped for a second. Nigel is the founder and owner and International business development for Aqua-Guard's environmental response services and equipment business. Aqua-Guard specialises in marine oil spill response. He’s the author of "Take that Leap - Risking it all for what really matters"; the founder of TruBeach, an app and a mobile platform community for reporting coastline and ocean cleanliness, and he’s the co-founder of GiftAdd.com, an organisation that works to bring awareness to the actual gift of ADHD and dyslexia. This is a truly enlightening conversation, one we are sure you’re going to enjoy. On today’s podcast: Why Nigel decided not to sell his business The incident with his father in an Egyptian prison The life goals he set with his business coach, Kevin Lawrence Why he wrote his book - ‘Take that Leap - Risking it all for what really matters’ His gap year with his family Links: Entrepreneurs’ organisation YPO organisation Take That Leap - Risking it all for what really matters Lynne Twist - the soul of money TruBeach gifadd.com